All Forum Posts by: Constance Chambers

@Michael P. I would love to know how to contact these other BP'ers sitting on cash...is there a market i should post to within BP?  i went to hard money lenders site ...and sent in a request to 1 that seemed reliable with good reviews but nothing from them yet..  I wish i had the time to market and connect locally with investors too...but as a cath lab travel nurse, frequently on call my time is accounted for except for what i can squeeze in on BP.   thanks for your response. 

@Stephanie P. We live in Athens, so our market analysis is based on what we know for last 25 years...and we have a duplex up the street. My daughter attends UGA. I see what the parents of these friends are willing to pay and im floored!! the listing agent/and our realtor call it a condo because its connected to another home...but it is a SFR. the owner of the other side actually lives there and is using it as a sfr. Our unit, was recently flipped by an investor from out of state. It was on the market only 3 days, shown over 60 times and we were one of 12 offers that made it in and we were accepted. We have another option if we decide not to do student housing, which is Airbnb due to proximity to the stadium. We believe in student housing with the right systems in place...my youngest 2 daughters are currently in a student housing situations in SFR in atlanta, seperately. They have done this for 3 yrs now successfully with no real roommate drama...parents are on the lease btw. We have several friends locally that use this model successfully. Listen to episode 175 of the rental property owner and real estate investor podcast for a good summary of how this can work. our portfolio lender is slow, thats the issue here. and Im not in town to get stuff to other lenders. and your right, lease structure is the KEY to making student housing work and not a nightmare.

@Paul Higbie Do you know another option? We have a possible private lender /friend for the down payment but if he falls through we have the cash for 10% of purchase on hand currently only. Time is of the Essence, we basically have 3 weeks now to secure lending or lose our earnest money or the deal...there were 12 offers on this home. We feel lucky to have won the contract. Its a booming area of Athens near the Vet school, and we are seeing prices sky rocket on SFH (being converted to student housing) in this area. same area sold for less than 100k 2 years ago, same size houses...now 4 bedrooms are over 200k easily...and rising. Traditional banks take weeks...our portfolio lender is not committed yet. We have 2 Mf's loans with them and a personal mortgage with another lender, she thinks our debt to income may be too high due to our "losses" (on paper from 2018 tax yr.) with our current 2 rentals. Due to timing, and im not in Athens to work on paperwork gathering for our usual lender...im thinking it would make better sense to use hard money initially then refinance when we have the property seasoned and can provide the banks whats needed to prove our numbers work solid.

@Dan Gamache So this "condo" is actually considered a SFR, although it shares 1 wall with another unit...it looks like a duplex from the front. The entire street is made up of these units...no condo association or HOA. That is another requirement of ours for properties. There are several condo units in Athens that can not accommodate REI's because of the limitations with % being owner occupied vs. rentals. Thanks for the advice Dan. Our lenders issue is more of financial personal requirements...this is not a commercial loan attempt.

This will be our first Student Housing rental, our third REI since Aug. 2018. We've spent hours listening and reading about student housing and truly believe in the potential for great returns if approached systematically (hmmm..spell check please) We live in Athens Ga. and plan to manage this investment ourselves, as we are doing with our other 2 MF properties. We evaluated and analyzed the areas near UGA and the new Vet school and know this is our target area, we found a turnkey condo via the MLS and made an offer (inside unseen..but we rode by, based on our BP rental calculator eval. using very conservative rents...17%ROI!) this morning and just received notice that our offer was accepted!! We have a portfolio lender with a pre-approval, but we want a back up plan...in case this lender pulls the plug. I do not want to miss out on this deal and would love to have more than 1 option for purchase...our first 2 REI's were with this same lender, and it was honestly like pulling teeth each day...literally did not know if we were approved until the day before closing each time, after having to reschedule because they asked for some other document. I know there has to be an easier way... Especially since i am working remotely now to earn more money to buy more property (travel nurse). Obviously need someone that can finance in Georgia. what HML have other investors used that were trustworthy. We have 10 days Due Diligence starting tomorrow.

@Stephanie P We have 2 MF properties, both via local portfolio loans with small hometown bank. Had to jump through all the same hoops, DTI / income verification/IRS transcripts...only difference was they actually loaned to us (my husband had a foreclosure in 2014) I guess the rigors of the loan process depends on the bank itself. We plan to refinance both properties soon after we build up our reserves in the business account. We also were asked to open an account with them ..which we happily obliged.

@Charlie Moore there are limitations for many states re application fees due to landlord scams.  im not making this up.  i listened to a podcast last year where an applicant sued for issues re to the fee.  beyond state regulations, some cities have even further restrictions re application fees.  Massachusetts and Vermont off the top of my head, can not collect application fees.  Virginia has limitations as do many other states.  

@Charlie Moore

We had same issue. We live in a college town too...hard to keep up w all those FB responses!!! So, I changed the listing to include our free google phone number ..& created a voicemail just for this property that helped weed out the potential renters. (I included our minimum income & to qualify to rent our duplex) Instead of individual showings...I had a 2 day open house (just like a seller would) & I used Cozy to vet anyone that came to the showing. So I did not charge an “application fee” & (you can get into trouble with collecting application fees in certain towns/states have strict regulations re these fees so research this diligently). But cozy does charge the tenant to use their service ., but it’s cheap, & they know I’m not just stealing an application fee knowing they can’t rent from us (which has become a bad business practice...& the local governments are watching this practice closely) I never see this fee. We also use Cozy to auto collect our rents on both duplexes. Love this option!!!! & gives the tenants the ability to pay rent with a credit card (For a small additional fee)

@Thuy Twee Nguyen Check out the chooseFI community on Facebook & chooseFI.com I love Mr Money Mustache.

@Sasha Mohammed

your response is very helpful, we do have preapprovals /prequal letters from 2 local banks...most properties wont even let you look at them without those letters  first.  By the time we get terms/interest rates/etc. from a bank...the properties have already accepted all cash offers....so our original offer has to be "all cash" to even have a chance...which means we need a private money lender sitting on the sidelines.  we dont even get to see the rentroles until after offers are accepted on most properties...these are not commercial properties.  we are focusing on Multifamily, up to 4plex...we have 1 duplex purchased and another under contract as of today,  the original cost us over 30K upfront just to purchase (closing cost + 20% down)  after this next closing, we are basically out of capital.     i understand the "skin in the game" that lenders want you to have invested, im just confused as to the "no or low money down" purchasing of real estate so often spoken of here...the only way i see that occuring is to have someone else  (friend/family) loan you the 10-20% down, then bring in a private lender for the rest so we can present "all cash" offers....??